A scheme targeting the ‘sick note culture’ of the UK is trying to ban the process of employers having to provide proof of illness from a GP, in the form of a ‘sick note’.

Currently the usual process sees employees who are off work for a certain time frame, dictated by the company they work for, will have to produce a sick note issued by a GP to warrant that more time off is necessary.

Figures show that more than a million people take sick leave for over a whole month every year.

Now a new scheme aims to rid this sick note culture, which costs the economy more than £9 billion each year.

This new plan will take the pressure off GPs to issue these notes, with a new fit-for-work scheme being rolled-out, checking those who have been off sick for over four weeks.

The Prime Minister David Cameron had said this £134 million scheme will begin to put to an end to the “conveyor belt to a life on benefits.”

The scheme has been met with opposition by The British Medical Association, who have said they would boycott the process if doctors felt the scheme would be forcing people back to work if they are still unwell.